1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for providing online services. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for online trading that allows third party services to include links for expedited trading.
2. Description of Related Art
The stock market allows individuals to buy and sell ownership interests in publicly traded corporations. Such ownership interests may be traded through trading of shares of company stock, trading of options on a stock, and/or trading of holding companies or mutual funds that own a portion of the company. Generally, such ownership interests are herein termed “securities”.
The advent of online trading has made it convenient for individual investors to participate in the stock market, and consumer response to the availability of online trading has been phenomenal. In 1999 alone, the number of online brokerage accounts grew by over 100%, so that by the end of 1999 there were well over 10 million online brokerage accounts. The increased number of investors and increased trading volume has encouraged many brokerages to compete for market share by reducing trading costs. Of course, brokerages can only handle greater volumes at reduced costs by improving the efficiency of their processes.
One of the brokerage processes that would benefit from increased efficiency is trading order placement. The traditional process requires interested account holders to (1) enter the URL of the online brokerage; (2) select a logon icon; (3) enter their username and password; (4) click a submit icon; (5) select a trade icon; (6) enter the stock symbol; (7) enter the other order details including price, order type, etc.; (8) click a preview icon; and (9) click a submit icon. Such a series of actions is tedious and cumbersome. Furthermore, if the account holder leaves the brokerage site, the process must be repeated for any subsequent orders.
The traditional process virtually guarantees that certain particularly desirable customers, namely day traders, will find the online brokerage unsuitable to their needs. This process places a heavy burden on such investors because they perform numerous trades each day, and they constantly move between the brokerage and various research and monitoring sites. Accordingly an improved trading system would be desirable.